Copper Wires
by MidnightAconite
Summary: "She was like a copper wire, conducting electricity directly to his heart." Daryl and Beth's relationship, as seen through the eyes of the various members of the group. Bethyl [Beth x Daryl]. AU after Coda.
1. Maggie

**A/N: Hello everyone! :) This fic has been bouncing around my head for a while, and I finally decided to write it down. I hope you all enjoy it! **

* * *

Maggie was, by nature, a protector. Growing up as the big sister, it was hard not to be. Beth had always been her responsibility (and to a lesser extent, Shawn's), so it was only natural that she was reacting like this. At least, that's what she told herself.

"I'm only looking out for you!" she says in exasperation to her little sister. "You're acting like I'm the bad guy."

Blue eyes narrow at her in defiance. "You don't trust me to make my own decisions. You still act like I'm a gosh-darn child!"

The corner of Maggie's lips twitches upward in amusement. Even while furious, Beth was ever the lady.

"Look, I know what you _think _you feel for him. But you're just confused. Daryl looks out for us, he provides for us, and you're just taking that gratitude you're feeling and misinterpreting it as…as…"

Maggie struggles. What exactly does her sister feel for the redneck?

"You're wrong," Beth answers quietly. "I'm not 'confused'. I'm not 'misinterpreting' anything. I care about him."

A memory flashes in Maggie's mind.

/_A dirty, half-dead mongrel makes its way to the front door of their old house on the farm. It's starved and has a mean temper, snarling at her through the mesh on the front door. She's frightened, though she'd never admit it, but Beth only stares at the animal in wonder. Looks up at her big sister and asks, "Can we keep it?" her eyes widening in excitement, not for one moment considering the danger the animal might pose. Beth nearly gets her hand bit off when she tries to pet the creature and Maggie barely has enough time to pull her back and save her._

"_It wouldn't hurt me," the blonde says petulantly. "It's just had a rough time out there all alone."_

_Maggie wants to yell at her and berate her for being so goddamn stupid, but she can't seem to find the words. She could have been hurt! She could have gotten sick! So she points at the stairs and Beth takes the hint, dragging her feet up to the top floor where her room is, sighing dramatically and muttering every step of the way./_

"It's in your nature to care about broken things," Maggie snaps, the sentence out of her mouth before she can stop herself.

And immediately she regrets it. But it's too late. Beth is angry, her blue eyes burning with a barely contained fire.

"He's not broken," Beth tells her icily. "Not to me."

And with that she's gone, leaving her big sister outside in the cold prison yard to regret her words.

* * *

Glenn laughs at her when she tells him about her sister and the redneck, as she paces back and forth in the darkness of their cell. He's looking up at her from their cot with sleepy eyes, a half-grin on his face.

"I think it's cute," he tells her. Maggie sees red.

"Cute?" she sputters. "It's not cute, Glenn. It's anything but."

"I don't get what the big deal is," he says with a shrug. "If she loves him – "

"Oh she loves everyone!" the elder Greene exclaims, exasperated. "Her heart is so big it has room for the entire world."

"That's not a bad thing, Maggie," he tells her softly.

"Yes it is," she answers sharply, her voice breaking with emotion. "You can't let just _anyone_ in. What if he hurts her?"

Glenn reaches out for her hand and takes it in his. "You worry too much, Mags. You have to trust her. Besides," he gives her one of his trademark smiles. "Haven't you ever been in love?"

She stares at the man in front of her, at his soft brown eyes and adorably messy hair, and she feels a warmth seep into her soul. She thinks of his personality, his genuine "Glenn-ness" and how he acts brave even when he isn't, how he works behind the scenes to hold the group together. She knows, just by looking at him, exactly how he's feeling. She knows what he's thinking, usually before he knows it himself and she knows his movements better than he she knows her own. He's not a born leader, not like Rick, nor is he tough like Daryl or the moral compass like her father. But in his own way, he contributes and she knows that without him, they would be lost.

_She _would be lost.

But she doesn't tell him any of this. Instead, she simply lies down next to him and he wraps his arms around her. She enjoys how he holds her close and causes all that warmth to seep through her mind and body.

"Haven't you, Maggie?" he asks her again, his voice slurring a bit with the beginnings of sleep.

"What, Glenn?" she asks, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"Been in love?" he says with a grin.

She simply smiles and kisses him gently on the lips.

"Shut up, Glenn."

* * *

She watches her sister and Daryl as they sit together outside in the courtyard. Beth laughs at something he says, puts her hand on his shoulder, throws her head back, lets her hair down. Daryl just sits next to her with a grin on his face, his hair covering those piercing blue eyes. But despite this obvious hindrance to his vision, he seems to be completely captivated by her movements. Maggie isn't surprised. When Beth is around, it's like the sun never sets and shines only on you. You're captivated, unable to move away.

The pair gets up, and Beth is pointing out towards the tree line. Daryl is shaking his head, he seems reluctant to do whatever it is that she is asking, but one pitiful look from her baby-blues and he caves. Her little sister squeals in delight, takes the hunter's hand and pulls him towards the trees. Daryl lets her pull him by one hand while his crossbow is held tightly in the other, and Maggie finds that she is jealous.

Jealous? That can't be right. But upon closer inspection, she realizes that jealousy is exactly the right word. She used to be so close with her sister. They used to share everything, all of their secrets and hopes and fears. But now, they're growing apart. Sure, it was probably her fault. She had attached herself to Glenn so firmly that she had put aside her sister's needs, and Beth (being Beth) had never said a word. She had understood.

But Maggie cannot do the same. She doesn't think that Daryl is good enough for her sister, believes that he'll hurt her and that Beth will not survive that kind of betrayal.

That night she dreams that the ragged mutt from their childhood succeeds in biting Beth's hand off. She wakes up in a cold sweat.

* * *

When their father dies, Maggie's heart cracks. It doesn't break fully in two, like she so desperately wants, because she can't let it. She has to maintain composure, she has responsibilities. Beth is one of those. Glenn is the other.

So she puts aside her heartache and attacks, letting the tears flow freely down her cheeks as she uses her machine-gun to blow away the Governor's henchmen. She tries to displace the pain, to put it away and bury it somewhere deep, where it will never be able to come back. But it's hard to bury feelings. Especially nowadays, when _nothing_ stays buried.

The group gets split up. She sees Glenn, still ill from that damn virus, planning to leave with a bus-load of survivors from the prison. She promises that she'll find him, that no matter what _she will find him._ And Bethy is gone. Vanished.

Like she never even existed.

And Maggie is alone. Sure, Sasha and Bob are there with her, but they might as well not be. She doesn't feel like herself, feels like she might as well be another one of the Walkers. The large crack in her heart has splintered and two more cracks have appeared. She's barely holding on, and both Sasha and Bob can see it.

So to avoid a total mental break, she compartmentalizes. Instead of focusing and hoping to find both Beth_and _Glenn, she decides to separate them. And she makes a choice, then and there, to look for Glenn first. She doesn't know why, or rather she refuses to analyze her reasons, but Glenn (whose face and laugh and smile haven't been far from her thoughts since they separated) is her first priority. So she pushes all those years of love for her sister down, deep down, where she buried the memories of her father and leaves them there until she can unearth them once again.

She doesn't realize that by doing this, she runs the risk of never being able to feel them again. Or perhaps she does. Because she fears the worst.

That her sister is already dead.

* * *

When the group reunites, albeit in that god-forsaken boxcar, she feels a glimmer of hope for the first time in a long time. It's quickly shattered when she realizes that Beth is not there, and all those feelings that had started to come up get pushed down in a hurry and locked away again.

That first night, when (almost) everyone else is asleep, she sits down quietly next to Daryl, who is sitting with his head in his hands. They sit in complete silence, neither one making the first move, both seemingly content to listen to the sounds of the boxcar creaking and the wind rustling outside. She fears to ask him what's on his mind, too afraid of what the answer might be, but at the same time she needs to know. She feels like she might burst if she doesn't know.

It's as if he reads her mind.

"Me 'n Beth…we were together for a while," he tells her, so softly that at first she thinks she may have imagined it.

"What happened?" she asks, feeling her voice waver, feeling her heart vibrate as the crack that Beth's absence had caused threatens to grow wider.

"I lost 'er," he confesses, the pain in his voice so unexpected to hear that Maggie is taken aback. "She was mine to protect. And I failed 'er."

"How did it – ?"

"A car," he says sharply, finally looking into her eyes. "I thought we'd be safe in that house…but I opened tha door. There were so many of them…I couldn't stop them. I told 'er to run…they got 'er when she stepped outside and I wasn't fast enough."

He's babbling now, talking so fast that she can barely understand him.

"I don't – " she begins but he cuts her off again.

"I wasn't fast enough, Maggie," he repeats and she can see the tears of anger and frustration building in his eyes. "I ran all night but I _lost _'er."

At first she doesn't know what to say. What do you say to a man who has so obviously lost everything? And it dawns on her that he really has lost everything. That this man, this man who she had judged so harshly, had done everything for her sister, risked everything and _lost_. She no longer doubted that Daryl Dixon was worthy of her sister's love.

She doubted that she was.

"At least you tried," she whispered, a single tear dripping down her cheek. "At least you looked for her. I didn't. I chose to look for Glenn first but when I found him…I didn't look any more."

Daryl's silent for a moment as she wipes the tear from her face and he looks down at his own hands before he answers.

"If it came down to a question of goin' to find Beth or Merle…I might've done what you did," he confesses, obviously ashamed of his answer. "But once I found 'er, Merle woulda been next on ma list. I'm sure ya would've done tha same, Maggie. Ya just didn't have time to find 'er before we got stuck in this hellhole."

She appreciates that he thinks so highly of her, appreciates that he thinks that given a second chance to find her sister, she would jump for it.

She fears that this isn't the case. She fears she'll disappoint him.

And she's right.

* * *

She's packing the bags onto the truck, getting ready to head out with Abraham's team and Glenn, when he grabs her by the wrist and turns her around, making her drop the bag in her hand. He's furious. His blue eyes are burning, his mouth is set into an angry scowl and his grip is so tight she's scared he'll break her wrist.

"Tha hell do ya think you're doin'?" he hisses, making her flinch. "Beth is out there. We know exactly where she is, we know who has 'er, and you're just gonna bail?"

"I can't leave Glenn," she tells him, her voice cold and devoid of feeling.

"Ya said that if ya had a second chance – "

"No," she interrupts. "You just assumed that. I have a duty to my husband."

"Beth is yer _blood,_" he all but snarls. "She should be yer first goddamn priority. Glenn would understand, he'd wait fer ya."

"There's no time. We have to go to Washington."

Honestly, she's surprised at herself. Where is this coldness coming from? Does she really not care about her little sister? No, that's not it. She realizes that it's fear that has stopping her from going to look for Beth. She knows that if she shows up at that hospital and Beth isn't there (or worse) she won't be able to go on. That would be it for her. Her heart can't take the strain. She'd rather just pretend that Beth is still out there somewhere, still fine, and never know for sure. Because if the answer is that she's something other than all right, Maggie knows that that will be the end for her.

"So that's it, huh?" Daryl growls, watching her with barely contained rage as she continues to load the truck.

"That's it," she confirms. She doesn't disclose her true reasons for not wanting to help.

"You fuckin' bitch," he curses, the venom in his voice stinging her more than she'd like to admit. "How is it that I've known that girl for only a short amount of time and I love 'er more than her own fuckin' sister?"

She's not surprised to hear that he loves her. She's seen it in his eyes, seen it in every move he makes, seen how he's unable to carry himself with that same confident air since Beth's been missing. Daryl's back is more hunched, his gait isn't as strong, and he walks almost as if he has a limp. Like they took a physical piece of him when they took her. She understands. Heart cracks change a person. Especially the big, fissure like ones that Beth's kidnapping has obviously left on his.

"I'm gonna find her, Maggie. And I swear ta fuckin' god when I bring 'er back, yer never gonna see 'er again. I won' let ya hurt 'er. I'd die first."

She understands perfectly. She doesn't say anything as he walks away, just continues getting herself together for Washington and internally packing away the memories of her sister.

* * *

She's standing in front of the hospital and her legs are shaking. Michonne said that they'd found her, that Beth was all right, that they had gone to get her. She can't quite believe that this is real. She had given up so much hope, had put so much of Beth's memory away that she doesn't know what will happen to her once she sees her sister.

And then they come out. Rick first, but behind him is Daryl and he's carrying…he's carrying…

Maggie can't stop herself. She starts to scream, feeling all of those feelings at the bottom of her soul rip themselves out of their grave and rise to the surface, threatening to drown her, take away her sanity. Tears cascade down her cheeks and she can vaguely feel Glenn's arms wrap around her from behind as if he were trying to keep her from ripping apart. That's exactly what she feels like is happening. She feels like she's being ripped apart, starting from the cracks in her heart and spreading outwards to her very fingertips. This is what she'd been fearing. Beth dead, covered in blood, not moving. Her sister gone, gone, gone, GONE.

She sees Abraham going up to Daryl, who is strangely calm at this moment, and through her screams she hears Beth's voice saying her name. She fears that madness has already taken hold of her, that she's lost her grip on reality already, but she hears it again, stronger this time.

The screams die in her throat, though she doesn't know if it's from the shock or if she's finally run out of voice to use. Daryl comes up to her, Beth in his arms, and she sees, to her great relief and at the same time disbelief, that the blood on Beth is not from a wound to her head. Her shoulder is bleeding but her sister is alive and looking up at her and _smiling._ Maggie is sure she's never been so thankful in her life.

"Maggie," Beth repeats gently for the third or possibly thirtieth time, Maggie isn't sure. "Please stop screaming. You're hurting my ears."

The elder Greene bites back a sob and before she can stop herself, she's kissing her sister's cheeks and hugging her tightly, babbling over and over about how sorry she is, how happy she is that Beth is okay. Her little sister only laughs and hugs her back with her one good arm.

* * *

Much later, when they are in a safer place and Beth has healed, Maggie confesses everything to her. How she was scared, how she pushed down her feelings, how she chose Glenn over her. She cries, begs for her sister's forgiveness, tells Beth that she understands if she doesn't want anything to do with her. But Beth only smiles and puts her arms around her in a genuine hug.

"It's okay, Maggie," she says gently, her tone conveying nothing but complete understanding and forgiveness. "Glenn is the love of your life. I understand."

"It should have been you first," Maggie tells her. "It should always be you first."

"No," the blonde tells her softly. "It can't be like that anymore."

Beth's eyes glance at Daryl, who is standing not too far away from the girls, talking with Rick. Though he isn't looking directly at her, Maggie knows that eighty-percent of Daryl's attention is on Beth. He's never far from her, not since they got her back from that god-forsaken hospital. He didn't leave her side while they fixed her shoulder, helped her with her recovery and did everything that she needed him to do for her while she was unable to properly move her arm. He was her guard-dog, loyal and kind to Beth and deadly to those he perceived to be her enemies.

Like Maggie.

While Beth was recovering, Daryl forbade the elder Greene to come within six feet of the blonde. One time, when she was pleading her case in front of Beth's door, he nearly drew a knife on her. Glenn had been furious when he found out and nearly went to talk to the hunter, but Maggie stopped him. She knew she deserved his anger, probably more than just that. She told Glenn that this was something she would have to deal with on her own.

He wasn't pleased when Beth had asked to see her sister, and he certainly didn't look too pleased with it now. But Maggie knew that it was his love for Beth that prevented him from saying no to her, no matter what she asked him to do.

"It's not you and me against the world anymore, Mags," Beth continued, giving her sister a small smile. "And I know you didn't think I would survive for long. It's okay," she interrupts, seeing that her sister is about to protest. "I didn't think so either. After the farm, I was sure I was done. But now, I've found something to live for."

Beth looks at Daryl and Maggie can see all of her love for him shine out of her eyes.

And in that moment, her sister's happiness is all that matters. Maggie feels those cracks in her heart begin to mend, feels her heart start to beat properly for the first time in a long time, and she smiles.

She takes Beth's hand in her own and closes her eyes, letting all those feelings and memories that she had pushed down fill her up to the brim. In her mind, she sees Beth standing with that mangy dog, feeding him jerky and laughing as his tongue gently laps at her fingers.

"_You see Maggie_?" she says, laughing, her blue eyes shining. "_I told you he wouldn't hurt me_."

* * *

**A/N: I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! Please review and let me know if you like it and if I should continue! :) Mucho love to all!**


	2. Glenn

**A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you all so much for the very encouraging reviews! :) Yes, here's another chapter already! I'm shocked as well, but I just couldn't rest until I finished it. I hope you like it! **_  
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* * *

Glenn couldn't keep a secret if his life depended on it.

It was never something he'd been able to do, even when he was a kid and Lucy Dawkins had made him swear not to tell anyone that she had fallen in the toilet after not seeing that the seat was up. To be fair, he waited until he was at least a respectable distance of five meters from her before the secret burst out of him like a geyser and their entire class heard it. Let's just say that Lucy never speaking to him again was the least of his worries (he was nearly bitten by a garden snake in his lunch box a few days later).

But the consequences of spilling _this_ secret would be worse. Much, _much_ worse.

Daryl Dixon is not a man you want to cross. And currently being held up by the collar by a very angry redneck was an indication that he had indeed crossed said redneck. But Glenn isn't scared.

"Daryl…could you put me down? I have a fear of heights," he jokes, in a tone he initially thought would come out jovial. But instead, his voice cracks and wavers, showing every inch of fear he is feeling at that moment.

Okay. So he _is_ scared. Very scared.

"The hell were ya doin' following us?" the hunter growls, his blue eyes glaring at him with murderous intensity.

"I wasn't!" he fibs unconvincingly.

Glenn is also a terrible liar. Like this one time in high school, when his then girlfriend had asked him if a pair of leopard print spandex tights (which highlighted _all_ the wrong places) looked good on her. A simple nod was the only response required of him. If he'd just done that, he probably would have gotten to second base with her _that night!_ But instead he fumbled, stuttered, and started to talk ("uh…well…you know…it's not for everyone"), which resulted in her throwing stuffed animals at him and yelling at him to get out of her house.

He was attacked by another garden snake the next day, this one hidden stealthily in his thermos.

And now, when lying might actually save his miserable life, he wasn't tapping into some hidden lying reserve that had been untouched all of these years. No. His lying reserve was all dried up, if it had ever been full at all.

"Daryl, put him down."

A shock of blonde hair on his right side is all he can see, as Daryl is doing a very good job of occupying the majority of his visual field. A pale hand touches the hunter's shoulder, squeezing it gently. It's as if the man's muscles lose their power at that touch, and Glenn finds himself being lowered back to the ground. He isn't sure what surprises him more: that Daryl Dixon is taking orders or that he's taking orders from little Beth Greene.

Little Beth Greene. Whose button-up shirt is open to her navel, whose blonde hair is down and messy, and whose lipstick (where did she get that?) is smudged. Glenn groans and puts his hands over his eyes.

"Beth…" he says, gesturing to her top with one hand while he keeps the other over his face.

She looks down and gasps, covering herself with her hands. She quickly buttons the shirt back up, a blush building on her cheeks as she starts putting her hair back up in a high ponytail. Glenn feels ill. He might as well have seen his little sister naked!

"Glenn," Beth says to him, her tone surprisingly authoritative for someone so petit. "You can't say a word to Maggie."

He scoffs. "Phff. What, do you think I tell her _everything?_ As if."

Neither the hunter nor the blonde look even slightly convinced.

"I'm going to talk to Maggie about this soon," she assures him. "I'll tell her all about Daryl and me."

The blonde glances over at the now deadly quiet hunter, a small smile playing on her lips. Glenn sees something flash across her eyes for the briefest second, a feeling that he's sure he knows but something that he can't quite place. Daryl glances back at her and it's the same flash, like a bolt of electricity running between them. It's so powerful, so visceral that Glenn feels like he's witnessing something private. Something sacred. He suddenly feels more embarrassed than when he saw Beth with half her clothes off.

"Please," Beth asks quietly, looking at him with eyes that remind him so much of her sister. "Just don't say anything to her for a few days. Please ."

A few days? A few _days?!_ He can't keep a secret for more than a few minutes! (His record, by the way, was ten minutes – before he told Franny DeAngelo that Mark Gordan wasn't going to ask her to prom, but was actually hoping to hook up with Cindy Jackson, who wasn't interested in him, but who was hoping that Travis Parker was going to change his mind at the last minute and ask her. Franny ended up throwing a soda in his face and the obligatory garden snake ended up in his shoe that time.)

He was going to tell Beth that it was impossible, that he's incapable of keeping his mouth shut for that long, but when he opens his mouth to say so, Daryl interrupts.

"If ya don' think ya can do it, Rhee, there's another option."

He feels relieved. "Oh thank god. What is it?"

The hunter grins at him.

"I can always rip out yer tongue."

* * *

Glenn recalls something that occurred two days before this incident.

He is standing outside in the prison courtyard, watching Beth and Maggie hang the laundry on the clotheslines. The Greene sisters keep glancing over at him, their voices barely above a whisper, and every time he looks back at them and cracks a small smile, they both begin to laugh uproariously. He has half a mind to go over there and ask what on earth could be so funny, but he lacks the courage. If it's something unflattering or if he's doing something wrong (in the bedroom or out of it) he doesn't want to know. He'd rather be an ostrich and stick his head in the sand.

He looks away from the girls before he gets too embarrassed and notices that he's not the only male there. Daryl Dixon is sitting on a log not far from where Beth and Maggie are, holding Judith in his arms. Now, it's not unusual to see the normally stony hunter's face soften when he's with the baby. In fact, his entire being softens when he's around her. But this time it's different. This time his posture is straighter, his eyes are softer, and his cheeks are...redder? And his gaze isn't permanently fixed on Judy.

It's on Beth.

Glenn's mouth drops open. No. No! A million times no! This can only spell disaster. When Maggie finds out that their resident redneck has the hots for her little sister, she's gonna lose it. He suddenly feels like he's going to vomit. If there's one thing that he hates, it's conflict within the group. And something like this could cause a hell of a lot of it. Especially since Beth couldn't possibly return –

His thoughts stop short, like someone cut a wire in his brain. He sees Beth say something to her sister, hand her some laundry, and walk over to where Daryl is sitting with Judith. She smiles at the hunter and bends down, as if to take the baby from him. But if that's all she wants to do, why does she also brush a quick kiss across his cheek? Why do her hands linger just a little too long in his as he passes Judith to her?

Glenn shifts his gaze to Maggie to see if she is witnessing any of this, but his girlfriend is too busy trying to hang the rather large bedspread to pay attention to what is happening between her sister and Daryl. For the second time in a short while, he feels sick. But he's proud of himself. He doesn't vomit. He doesn't even gag.

He faints.

* * *

And that's why, two days later, he follows them. Half of him is convinced that he's imagining things, while the other half wants to yell at both of them, make them think about the consequences of their actions. He doesn't believe that this relationship (if you can even call it that) is anything more than a way to blow off steam. A silly crush. Or maybe he doesn't _want_ to believe that it's more than that.

Because love is fucking complicated. He knows that firsthand.

He isn't prepared for what he sees when he enters the showers, two minutes behind the pair.

Daryl has Beth pressed up against the shower wall, his tongue in her mouth. One hand is wrapped in her blonde hair while the other is grabbing her ass. And Beth doesn't seem to be complaining. If anything, she's kissing him back just as fiercely, pulling his hair just as strongly, pressing her body to his with an almost desperate need.

He tries to leave before they notice him, but he trips and falls, clatters to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Glenn remembers that he can also be clumsy, especially when he's gone blind from seeing something so disturbing. Like this time in high school, when he accidentally walked into the girl's change-room and –

But he doesn't get to finish that memory. Daryl has already picked him up by the collar.

* * *

Ten minutes after promising to keep their secret, Glenn already regrets it. He can feel it in his throat, ready to burst out of him at any second.

"Hey Glenn," Carol greets as she walks past him.

"Nothing! I don't know what you're talking about!" he squeals, his voice high-pitched with terror.

Carol gives him a curious look, but before she can ask, Glenn's already heading to the kitchen, hoping to find a bottle of booze. He figures that if he gets drunk, _really _drunk, he can forget the secret all together. And if he's lucky enough, he might just forget the entire day.

* * *

That night, Maggie's pacing back and forth in their room. Beth has just told her about her feelings for Daryl (sooner rather than later, probably fearing Glenn's big mouth) and the brunette is furious. Glenn, who is lying on their cot, pleasantly hammered, is barely listening to what she's saying.

All he can think about is how wonderful she is, how he would do anything for her, anything at all. He feels lucky just to know her, just to get to listen to her voice and see her eyes flash as she rants. He thinks it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.

"Haven't you ever been in love?" he asks her, hoping she doesn't hear the slur in his speech.

At first, he doesn't know why he asked her this. But then his mind flashes back to that morning, to seeing that strange electrical charge that passed between Daryl and Beth, and once again he tries to analyze it. But he can't. His brain is too foggy with booze.

So he smiles up at Maggie, enjoying how she looks with the moonlight coming through the bars of their cell, and he promises himself that no matter what happens, if they ever separate, they will find a way to each other. He knows that for her, to be with her, he will do whatever he has to do. Nothing will stand in his way.

"Haven't you, Maggie?" he asks her again, his voice slurring not because of sleep, but rather bad moonshine.

"What?" she questions, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"Been in love?" he replies with a grin.

"Shut up, Glenn."

* * *

Things get bad when the illness comes.

He's sick, stuck behind a door that separates those who are infected from those who are healthy. He's pretty sure that he's going to die but that doesn't stop him from doing his part, doing everything he can to help Hershel take care of the others.

Maggie comes to visit. They see each other through the small, dirty window on the metal door. She holds back the tears, tells him that everything will be all right, that they're looking for medications and that he'll be out of "this wretched room" soon.

Glenn can tell that she's lying. But he pretends to believe her anyway.

Daryl visits him almost every night, which surprises him at first. The hunter claims that he can't sleep after his watch, and he has nothing better to do, but Glenn knows that's not true. The worry in the archer's eyes is clear, though he tries to hide it. Glenn says nothing, however. He just enjoys his friend's company. Because after everything they've been through Daryl is, at the very least, his friend. At most, he's his brother.

He sees that the strain of leadership has taken its toll on Daryl. He's quieter, more thoughtful, and his emotions are held completely in check. His shoulders are also bent, as if the weight of the entire prison is on them. This is true in a way. With Rick still not fully recovered from Lori's death, Hershel tending to the wounded and himself in the state that he's in, Daryl is (unofficially) in charge. And for a man who has never been responsible for anyone except himself and sometimes Merle, this is brand new territory. Glenn can see the conflict in his eyes, the barely hidden anxiety with every decision that he makes. Daryl has taken his responsibility for the citizens of the prison very seriously.

Thankfully, he has Beth. From what little Daryl is willing to divulge, Glenn deduces that the blonde has been by his side every step of the way. She helps with planning the runs and takes watch, just like any regularly contributing member of the group. But she also takes care of Judith, helps Carol in the kitchen, and looks after Maggie, who has been having quite a bit of trouble keeping herself together while he's been in quarantine.

Not to mention that Beth visits him, visits all of the infected, every morning. She usually brings something for them, some extra blankets that were found on a recent run or maybe some extra soup cans. She can't come in (her father would be furious) but she leaves the items in front of the door and spends a couple of minutes talking to Glenn. She looks exhausted, her eyes red and bleary, and her face paler than usual. He tells her to slow down, that the prison won't fall if she takes one day off. But she brushes off his concern, tells him that she's fine, that she's more worried about him and the others. He wants to argue but he simply can't.

He lacks the strength.

Other members of the group also come to see him. Carol brings him a book. Rick brings him some beer that he found on a run. Tyrese comes by to fill him in on what's happening in the prison, as well as talk to his sister. The last visit he gets is from Beth and Daryl. Beth is holding the hunter's hand, pulling him along with her to the metal door. Daryl looks slightly embarrassed, as Glenn would expect him to, and he teases him about it.

"Ah, come on, man," the archer mutters, looking down at his shoes.

But Glenn can tell that he's not as embarrassed as he would have been only a few weeks ago. And though Beth's the one that's pulling _him_ along, Daryl's the one who is holding onto her hand as if he's scared of letting _her_ go. They've come to tell him something, that things are changing, but he isn't paying attention. Instead, he looks at them through his little window and marvels at how two people who are so different, who grew up in totally different worlds, can look so comfortable together. Like connecting pieces of the same puzzle. And he finally understands what he's been seeing, what the electrical energy between them really is.

Love. Ridiculous, all consuming, heart-breaking love. It surrounds them, insulates them, protects them.

And for the first time in a long time, Glenn smiles.

* * *

He gets worse. It's harder and harder to breathe, and the coughing fits feel like they're ripping him apart from the inside. He spends most of his time lying on his cot, taking one wheezing breath after the other, putting all his energy into his lungs and forcing them to cooperate. His thoughts drift to Maggie a lot. He figures that if he's going to die, her face might as well be the last thing he sees, even if she isn't physically with him.

Other than breathing, he spends as much time as possible unconscious, in strange but beautiful dreams. They all take place on what appears to be a farm. The entire group is there and everyone is laughing and talking and drinking. Maggie reaches out to him, pulls him into a hug and kisses him. She asks him where he's been, that they've been waiting for him to cut the cake. He asks her who the cake is for and she just laughs, tells him that he's "such a kidder" and pushes him towards a table that has appeared seemingly out of nowhere. A little boy is sitting across from him, in front of a large chocolate cake with three candles.

The boy looks like a miniature version of himself. Same black hair, same smile. He even puts his small hand through his hair in exactly the same way that Glenn does. But there is one crucial difference between them.

He has Maggie's eyes.

It's these dreams that keep his heart beating long after it should have stopped.

* * *

Maggie's gone. He wakes up alone and she is _gone._ Their home has fallen apart at the seams. All he sees, for miles and miles around him are Walkers. So he plans a way out of there, makes a promise to himself that the first person he will find is his wife. However, he finds Tara instead, and they get out of the decaying prison together.

Everything afterwards is a blur. He meets Abraham, Eugene and Rosita, and agrees to help them if they help him find Maggie first. And when, against all odds, he finds his wife, he promises every deity he can think of that he will never ask for anything again.

Very soon he regrets this decision.

* * *

Maggie is screaming. He's behind her, holding her together as her body threatens to tear itself apart. Daryl is holding Beth in his arms, her pale skin bloody and her hair a tattered mess. There's so much blood on her that Glenn can't tell where the wound is and he feels the panic start to creep up his spine. But he can't lose control now. His primary purpose is to keep Maggie together and to be strong for the both of them.

When he hears Beth speak, he almost lets go of his wife completely in disbelief. And when the two sisters hug, he releases a breath that he didn't know he was holding. He looks at Daryl, puts a comforting hand on the hunter's shoulder, and sees the barely contained tears in his eyes. Glenn understands completely. If their roles were reversed, he'd probably be bawling his eyes out.

When the Greene sisters finally let go of each other, Daryl snatches Beth back almost greedily and cradles her to his chest, planting kisses all over her face. The blonde nuzzles closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she does.

"Are you real?" Beth asks the hunter, her voice wavering a bit, as if she's scared of the answer. "Please tell me that you're real."

"Course I am," Daryl replies, his voice rough from his barely contained emotion. "But ya must be a dream."

"Why?" she asks softly, her blue eyes looking up into his.

"Cause, girl. I ain't never seen anything so fucking beautiful in my entire life."

* * *

One morning at breakfast, Maggie tells him that he's been talking in his sleep. He's surprised at this revelation, as he can't remember ever doing it before. She says he's always calling for someone, someone named Jonah or Noah. His mind flashes to the little boy in his dreams, the boy with his mother's eyes. And he smiles.

"Wanna tell me what you're smiling about, Rhee?" his wife asks him with a raised eyebrow.

He pauses. No, he has never been good at keeping secrets. But as his eyes drift to Beth and Daryl, who are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at the opposite end of the table, he realizes that he _has_ kept a secret all this time. He has never told anyone about how he caught them that day in the prison showers, the day that nearly got him killed. And he realizes that maybe people can change. A lonely man who used to despise the world and rage against it is now the first to volunteer to protect it, and a scared, weak girl has turned into a woman who stands up not just for herself but also for those who can't stand up for themselves. And these two very different people have found each other and fallen in love, in spite of everyone and everything that had contrived to keep them apart.

"Well?" Maggie repeats, staring at him expectantly. "Why are you grinning like the cat that caught the cream?"

Old Glenn would probably confess without hesitation and tell her all about these dreams he's been having. But instead, he only shrugs and puts his arm around her shoulders.

"If I tell you," he says. "It won't come true."

And as he looks into those eyes he loves so much, those eyes that he knows, in his heart, his son will have, he is sure that he's made the right decision.

* * *

**A/N: Aw. I just love love. :) I hope you guys enjoyed my portrayal of Glenn. I've never written from his POV before so...I hope it's decent! :P Also, I've just recently figured out how to respond to reviews directly (I know, I know, how did I not figure this out before?!) so I'll be getting back to reviewers shortly! Thank you and please review! :D**


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